From my Home Desk as the Competition & Volunteer Officer As I sit at home in my lounge room working, at times gazing out of either through my front window which looks out to the Court or my side window which looks over my backyard, the South Street Team have now been working from home for 5 months now, and we will continue to do so until the December. So, come January 2021 we will hopefully be back to normal life & back into our office. I am currently updating the data base of volunteers so if you have any changes, please let me know. Even though there are no comps this year the team still have plenty of work to do, as we also start planning for 2021. You will also notice that I have changed the name to Volunteers & Friends, this newsletter now also goes to not only our wonderful Volunteers, but this now also goes to our Calisthenic & Season Ticket holders. This month newsletter is another lengthy one & I hope you will find it interesting to read. It amazes me what I can find to entertain you all.
COVID-19 Lockdown As we draw closer to September 13th when hopefully the restrictions will ease a little, I hope you are all staying safe, unlike our Melbourne friends who are in Stage 4, at least we are only Stage 3. Hoping to be able to see you soon when this is over. If you ever need a chat, or if you are missing your RSSS family, feel free to send me a message via email, or just pick up the phone for a chat. My number is 0417 390 599.
Competitions: Wow, even in lockdown I think of the comps, at the time of writing this News we would have completed the following competitions if we were in a normal year: * ACU Debating * Chopin * Pianoforte * ACU Speech & Drama * VBL * Vocal (even though we have offered video entries). Certainly, is really weird knowing where we should be to be where we are. But we shall come back in 2021 bigger & brighter.
Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter
2020 Badges:
The Royal South Street 2020 Badges has arrived. The cost of $15 includes postage. Keep your collection up to date even though COVID-19 has stopped our live performances. Please follow the link, to our website to purchase: http://125.royalsouthstreet.com.au/shop/
Volunteer Zoom Catch-up Winner: Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent Zoom catch up, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the Fruit Basket from Peaches was Amanda Milton, pictured below enjoying the basket. These have been a lot of fun, so I hope you can join me & other volunteers on Monday 14th September at 8pm, this month I will only run the one at this stage.
Reminder about Social Media: If you are on Facebook come & join our pages, as per listed below. * Main Page ~ Royal South Street Society * Calisthenics Page ~ RSSS Australian Calisthenic Group (Private) * Dance ~ Royal South Street Dance Competition (Private) * Volunteers ~Royal South Street Society Volunteers – please join this one
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Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter
Volunteer Story from Amanda Milton
My husband and I moved to Ballarat at the end of 2004, we wanted to buy a home but could not afford Melbourne. We purchased our first home in Sebastopol & now live in Mount Clear. Royal South Street has always held a special place in my heart because I come from a music background, my younger brother Tim and sister Catherine both performed in the competition when they were in primary/secondary school. I have been involved in Royal South Street for 15 years as an usher. My most memorable moment was meeting a lady I had not seen for over 20 years! We worked together at AMP. I am also a volunteer at Sovereign Hill, I have my costume, I play music there, I have had my photo taken 1000’s of times & meet people from all around the globe. This year I had the privilege of taking part as a volunteer for the T20 women’s cricket world cup. Basically, I was one of 20 volunteers chosen out of 100’s of applicants. The series was held at the Junction Oval – so I caught the train from here to Melbourne. Tram from Bourke Street to St Kilda Tram stop 10min. Then a short walk to Junction Oval and ¾ lap around Junction oval to the office to start the day. During the matches, my role was to rove around the ground talking to people, making them feel welcome, using all of my skills from Sovereign Hill. I did find it tiring at times however I was able to sit down as often as I liked. I must add when the Indian Team supporters arrived, I had the photo with the mascot and then my co-worker who is Indian suggested we dance with them!! Heaps of fun!! No co-ordination from me!! During the tournament I met some of the ladies from the original women’s 50 over world cup cricket team including the captain Raylee Thompson that toured England in 1973, The 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup was the first tournament of its kind, held two years before the first limited overs
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Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter World Cup for men in 1975. The competition was won by the hosts, England. [1] The competition was the brainchild of businessman Sir Jack Hayward, who contributed £40,000 towards its costs I am looking forward to the Men’s competition in 2021/2022 Geelong is where the round matches will be held, then the MCG for big matches for example Australia’s matches. As volunteers we are involved with both venues. I am also involved in my local church and the Ballarat Choral Society too. Thanks Amanda, it is always nice to hear about what other organisations our volunteers, volunteer for. Our world would not work without our volunteers. If you volunteer somewhere please send me your story, love to hear about it, & I will publish your story in the next newsletter.
Memories from Ronald & Dawn Harrington
Memories of 36 years a board member and 3 terms as President. In 1984 I was invited by Warwick Kittson to consider going on the RSSS board. It was a bit of a shock and I felt it an honour to be asked, one of the benefits was to be able to go to the Herald Sun Aria final in Melbourne. I talked it over with Dawn and she was in favour of it. We were invited to meet other board members and their partners at the Kittson’s home and met Tony and Barbara Cole as well as Lloyd and Lorraine Harvey. The Harvey’s have become great friends over the years celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary’s in Las Vegas 3 years ago. The partners were very much involved back then. When anything special was on or at the end of a night’s competitions there was always a supper with the adjudicator and the ladies would provide the food. Dawn found she was asked to do jobs the other partners were doing, chairing, making presentations on stage, helping with the suppers, she didn’t know it would be expected of her when we accepted. One job of the President’s wife was to arrange the floral arrangement on stage for the Herald Sun Aria semifinal. Dawn managed it very well with a flowering plum we had in our garden I pruned very hard, fortunately it was in flower at the right time and it was the centre piece.
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Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter
The Theatre was owned by RSSS then and Ray Benn and his wife put the competitors on and off the stage during the day, Joe Finn was the usher and doorman. (I remember Joe, always was there to greet everyone into the auditorium). The board members all worked so they would only be able to come in of a night or weekend to help chair or work backstage. Some of the partners would chair sessions of a day and of course men had to wear dinner suit of a night, so many traditions. I helped Winston Loveland for some time with the Electronic organ and Compton Theatre Organ section and then was asked to help Mr. Eric Steele who oversaw the Speech and Drama section. When Mr. Steele retired, I took over from him. I had a lot to do with Monica and Ron Morgan who were Speech and Drama teachers and approached them if they would consider going onto the board which they did and made valuable contributions to RSSS. Doug and Daphne McMillan ran the Calisthenic section and I used to help them backstage, when Doug turned 70 he said he was retiring, Brian McInnis then President asked me if I would take it on. It was a big challenge and I said I would with help and for seventeen years Dawn and I looked after it, we enjoyed being involved. We had a terrific number of volunteers who assisted us over the years, many who are still volunteers. Being on the board you assist other discipline chairs where you can as we are only volunteers too but with more responsibilities. A few of the highlights I had as President was to go on stage at the Melbourne Concert Hall and make a short speech in front of 2000 people. The first time I was compere for the Graceful Girl Championship I was shaking so much I could hardly keep the paper still enough to read it. In 2007 the Championship Calisthenic teams said they would not come to Ballarat to compete if we allowed C.A.S.A. Calisthenic Association of South Australia to compete as they were a combined mix of girls from their best clubs equal to a State team. The fighting had gone on for years and something had to be done and we said this is the last year you can come, in future only championship teams can come. We were not too popular for some time, but we got a lot of S.A. clubs come who previously were not allowed to go to Ballarat. Unfortunately, it is happening again with Victorian Championship teams not coming to Ballarat as they have gone so big with the number of girls and scenery size they won’t fit on Her Majesty’s stage and are stopping Championship Interstate clubs from coming to take their place. As a result of them not coming to Ballarat we have lost ¾ of our revenue on the Saturday with 2,700 lost seat sales. In 2001 when I was President, we had losses of $20,000 over several years. We decided we needed a good sponsor. Les Holloway was advertising manager for the Courier who I was dealing with doing the RSSS advertisements of what was on each day and he said he knew the Canny family very well who operate the Red Lion and Sovereign Park Motor inn. They approached Tattersall’s on our behalf to be a major sponsor for us and they were Principal Sponsor for a number of years and helped us get back into the black. When Les retired after many attempts I eventually got him to stand for the board. He was a great contributor and when he went off the board, he was very involved with the Team Archive who are putting all our Chairman results book into digital records. He realized his ambition writing and publishing a book entitled The Years Between on the history of Debating Societies in Ballarat that RSSS started off as. We miss him, may he rest in peace.
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Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter
In 1992 a meeting took place between Mt Gambier Eisteddfod and RSSS to consider forming an Association of Eisteddfod Societies of Australia. It was decided to do this and with invitations to Victorian Eisteddfod Societies I was chairman of this foundation meeting where it was voted on one such association being formed. The aim was as a body to apply for State and Federal funding as Eisteddfods could not apply for funding as they were amateurs and a competition, and to apply to get donations allowable as tax deductions. I was Vice President for several years, then assistant treasurer and now treasurer. In 2007 Dawn, I and Peter Bowler who was RSSS secretary met with Geoff Howard MP. to see if he could help RSSS to get State funding. Dawn knew him well when he was a teacher at Sacred Heart, he taught our daughter. He arranged a meeting with Country Caucus and representatives of regional Victorian Eisteddfods. We were allowed ten minutes, but it went a lot longer as were asked a lot of questions. The Arts Minister was Mary Delahunty who had competed at RSSS and compered the semifinal of the Herald Sun Aria. Parliament met in Ballarat and Peter Bowler wrote our submission. Peter came from the public sector and knew how to write applications. The minister said to her financial team to find money somewhere they could use. In 2008 Geoff Howard announced a grant of $400,000 over four years to assist with the adjudicator costs of Victorian Eisteddfods. We are now in the thirteen year of the grant. There were twenty-seven societies then and now down to twenty-three. In Australia there are 104 member societies. RSSS administer the grant on behalf of Arts Victoria, now Creative Victoria. Peter did that before he left, and I have now taken on that roll since then. Another highlight was when I was President in 1991 and the society celebrated its Centenary 100 years with a special morning celebration at the Dana Street school where RSSS started with seven young men who were going to the night school. As that was where I started my schooling it was rather special to be back in that assembly room. A plaque has been put on the wall between the two schools commemorating the fact that is where it all started. When I was President in 1991 the Centenary year and I had these medals made and I presented one to each board member and on the opposite side had the date they joined the board
The Centenary Medal To our wonderful volunteers whether you volunteer for several sessions or lots of them it is vital and is an opportunity you give these young competitors to be able to perform on stage before a wellqualified adjudicator. There are a lot of more people moving to Ballarat from Melbourne, hopefully we will be able to get some of them to become volunteers. Talk to your friends and encourage them to become volunteers, word of mouth is one of the best ways.
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Royal South Street Society Volunteer Newsletter I was honored to receive a life membership from the board in 2004 and in 2008 I received an OAM in the Queen’s Birthday List. I would not have been able to do what I have done without the help of Dawn who does as much as I do. I was very pleased when the board gave Dawn and Lorraine Harvey a Life Membership; they are the first to receive this who are volunteers and not board members. Things have changed so much over the years from how they were done with a lot more rules and regulations than before, but the reason for what we do remains the same, to give the opportunity to our young people to be able to perform before an audience. Now we have COVID-19, who would have ever imagined anything like this could happen, hopefully we will be able to recover from it before too long and return to normal, stay safe. Thank you so much for your memories Ron & Dawn, all I could say is wow, you have both been amazing volunteers for South Street and still are for many more to come.
Stay safe & take care everyone, hear from you all soon. Until next time: Kind Regards, Julie e) julie@royalsouthstreet.com.au m) 0417 390 599
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